It is a project described as a "climate bomb" by its opponents.
After three years of procedural battle, TotalEnergies must appear Wednesday, December 7 before the Paris court.
Scheduled for October 12, the hearing had been postponed at the request of the Ugandan and French associations, which were suing the multinational for the environmental consequences of this project and the human rights violations resulting from it.
The NGOs Survival and Friends of the Earth then demanded more time to study the documents in the file transmitted at the last minute by the oil and gas giant.
>> To read on France24.com: Legal setback for Total and its giant pipeline project in Uganda and Tanzania
In the sights of environmental associations, two colossal projects closely linked: the Tilenga project, a drilling of 419 wells in Uganda, a third of which in the Murchison Falls natural park, and the Eacop project (East African Crude Oil Pipeline), the most longest heated pipeline in the world, which crosses Tanzania for nearly 1,500 km, crossing several protected natural areas.
"The pipeline will cross a number of fragile ecosystems, the Lake Victoria basin and, in Tanzania, other areas, including wetlands and protected ecosystems", explained in 2021 Juliette Renaud of Friends of the Earth, one of the two French associations at the heart of the procedure.
According to the NGO, the project represents "a great threat to biodiversity and water resources in Uganda and Tanzania".
Silence the Resistance
In front of the French justice, the opponents of the project should assert the breach of the "duty of vigilance" of the multinational.
Adopted in 2017 following the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, in which more than 1,100 workers lost their lives, this law makes companies liable for "risks of serious human rights violations and the environment, including when they are committed by their direct or indirect subsidiaries, in France and in the rest of the world".
For its part, Total assures in a press release that "its vigilance plan is implemented effectively [...] in order to respect the rights of local communities and to ensure respect for biodiversity".
Insufficient for the associative world which asks the civil judge to condemn the multinational to a financial penalty until the respect of its obligations.
>> To read also: fossil projects, "climate bombs" in full proliferation
The Stop Eacop collective, which brings together African and international organizations opposed to the project, should rely on several edifying reports published in recent months, which contradict the good intentions displayed by TotalEnergies.
According to several field investigations, the multinational leads, with the complicity of local authorities, campaigns of threats and intimidation against farmers who have been expropriated or forced to give up farming their land.
Human rights violations denounced in September by the European Parliament, which also worried about "arbitrary detentions" of activists who dared to oppose the project.
MEPs then adopted by a large majority an emergency resolution asking TotalEnergies to postpone the project.
TotalEnergies goes for transparency
Faced with criticism from around the world, the French group recently decided to play transparency.
The oil and gas giant has opened the doors of its pharaonic construction site in Uganda to a team of journalists from France Télévisions.
“We try as much as possible to minimize the impact on the ground, on the environment and on the communities”, assures the site manager before adding: “In any case, if it is not France, if it is It's not Europe that does it, it will be the Chinese and in my opinion it will still be different".
>> To read also: Total, champion of the strategy of doubt according to a study
During their report, the journalists also went to meet the expropriated people.
If Total boasts an "exemplary" project, promising to compensate everyone, many farmers complain that they have received nothing or have been offered derisory sums.
"They wanted to give us 3,000 euros but I don't want this money. This sum is not enough to relocate me or rebuild a house somewhere," says Mugisha Jealousy, a farmer who claims to have been pressured by Ugandan authorities.
According to calculations by the "Stop Eacop" coalition, 118,000 people have been partially or totally expropriated because of this project, which is supposed to make Uganda a new oil El Dorado.
In total, the pipeline drilling and construction projects represent an investment of $10 billion.
Production is scheduled to start in 2025 for a period of twenty-five years, with peak production estimated at 230,000 barrels per day.
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